Measure, filter, and A/B your reference tracks
Import your client targets and studio benchmarks. ARADAR measures integrated LUFS, loudness range, true peak, crest factor, and a 10-band frequency profile on every track. Run band solo, mono, side, and phone checks from the player bar, and build median frequency curves from any group of tracks.
Turn vague client briefs into a two-second lookup
Add your folders of client targets, commercial masters, and past sessions. ARADAR indexes them in place on your internal drive or external SSD, reads embedded ID3 and Vorbis tags, and measures every file on import. Stack filters for Label, Note, Camelot code, BPM, LUFS, and Format to pull a key-matched benchmark in seconds.
External SSD & NAS ready
Files stay where they live on disk via macOS security-scoped bookmarks. Unplug an external archive drive and rows mark as Unreachable; plug it back in and they relink automatically.
Watched client & bounce folders
Point ARADAR at your incoming client mixes and mastering exports. Press Find new (⇧⌘R) to ingest new bounces and re-analyze updated files while preserving your notes and tags.
Non-destructive tags & batch edit
Tag benchmarks by role (sub-anchor, vocal-air, clipped-club) and batch-edit missing WAV metadata in ARADAR’s local database without touching the client’s master file.
Level-matched A/Bs and band checks without opening a DAW
Play AIFF, WAV, FLAC, MP3, and M4A natively with integrated LUFS, key, Camelot code, and BPM on screen. Turn on Match loudness on playback (−14 LUFS default, or −12 / −16 / −18 LUFS) so a −7 LUFS reference master is attenuated to sit at the same perceived volume as an unmastered client mix, with the exact dB cut shown in the player bar.
Loop any section, solo one or more of the six frequency bands, or switch between mono, side (L−R), and a 300–4,000 Hz phone filter. Every band boundary is customizable in Settings → Playback, and active checks stay latched across track changes.
Measure loudness, dynamics, and spectrum on every file
Every imported file gets a full offline measurement pass via bundled ffmpeg. Sort your library by any metric and inspect the exact numbers before you load a single plugin (see the studio audio & metering glossary for definitions and typical ranges):
Integrated LUFS
EBU R 128 / ITU-R BS.1770 K-weighted integrated loudness across the full file, so you can see whether a reference sits at −6.5 LUFS club level or −14 LUFS streaming normalization.
Loudness Range (LRA)
Macro-dynamic variation in LU from breakdown to drop, showing how much contrast a reference retains after mastering compression.
True Peak (dBTP)
Inter-sample peak ceiling in dBTP – spot immediately whether a master is clipped above 0.0 dBTP or held below −1.0 dBTP for lossy codec headroom.
Crest Factor & RMS
Peak-to-RMS ratio in dB alongside average RMS level, giving you a direct numeric read on transient punch versus limiting density.
10-Band FFT (+4.5 dB/oct)
Logarithmic octave bands from 20 Hz to 20 kHz with a +4.5 dB/octave visual tilt so a balanced master reads near horizontal.
BPM, Key & Camelot
Reads embedded BPM and key tags, computes the Camelot code (1A–12B), and estimates missing BPM from the audio so your FFT overlays stay key-aligned.
Benchmark client tracks against a ±1σ corridor
Select any three or more tracks – a label catalog, a subgenre, or a client’s previous masters – to build a median 10-band frequency profile with a ±1σ standard deviation corridor. Overlay any incoming mix or master on the corridor to show the client exactly where each band sits relative to the target group.
Questions engineers ask first
How do mastering engineers use median frequency curves?
To avoid matching a single reference track that might be an outlier, engineers use ARADAR to group three or more tracks from a label, subgenre, or client catalog and compute their median 10-band frequency curve. You can overlay any mix or master against that target curve and its ±1σ corridor to spot tonal deviations per band.
How do I extract crest factor, true peak, and LUFS from reference tracks?
Drop your audio files into ARADAR (or point it at a watched folder) and it automatically measures EBU R 128 integrated LUFS, loudness range (LRA), true peak (dBTP), RMS, crest factor, and a 10-band frequency profile (+4.5 dB/octave tilt) on import. No DAW plugins or analysis routing are required.
How does loudness-matched A/B playback work in the player bar?
Turn on Match loudness on playback in Settings → Playback and choose a target (−12, −14, −16, or −18 LUFS, or a custom value). ARADAR attenuates any track louder than the target during playback and displays the exact gain cut (such as −4.8 dB) in the player bar, while leaving quieter mixes untouched and never altering your audio files.
Can I customize the frequency band solo crossovers?
Yes. The player bar gives you six soloable frequency bands plus mono, side, and a phone band-limit check. You can edit the crossover frequencies for all six bands and the phone filter in Settings → Playback, and active checks stay latched as you switch between references and client mixes.